To explore the unhappy underbelly of ethical eating, we asked vegetarians across the country to share some of their day-to-day hardships involved in maintaining a meatless diet. Here are 23 reasons to have pity on their bacon-deprived souls.

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Turning down home-cooked meals
This was by far the most popular response. It sucks when someone's gone out of their way to cook, and you're left to awkwardly decline their hospitality.

Being lumped in with snobby vegetarians
This was the second most common response. That person guilting you for enjoying meat? They're the 1%. Most vegetarians hate those types of preachy vegetarians.

Antagonistic, ethical wormholes
If a cow is killed in the woods, and no one is around to hear it moo in pain, will you eat it? If you had to kill a chicken in order to stop a world-destroying plague, would you eat it then? Vegetarians are not excited about answering these types of questions. Most will happily explain their views, if you don't come at them with gloves swinging.

International travel
One of the best things about traveling is exploring new food cultures. One of the worst things about vegetarianism is figuring out if a restaurant abroad cooks their beans in lard.

Meat worship
Try eating out these days without coming across a menu full of pork belly.

Catered events
Seventeen baby carrots and a handful of asparagus do not a meal make.

Dating non-vegetarians
Bacon will tear you apart.

Dan Gentile is a staff writer on Thrillist's national food and drink team. He was a vegetarian for five years, a secret he has been keeping from his coworkers for just as long. Follow him to veggie enchilada flashbacks at @Dannosphere.